This invention relates to a novel and useful article which protects a male's clothing against being soiled by dripping urine such as is commonly referred to as post-urinary drip.
More specifically the article provides for a disposable sheath, optionally in combination with a liner means ("liner" for brevity), at least one of which is made of urine-absorbent ("u-a" for brevity) material which has a high absorbence for urine. The liner, if used, is placed in the sheath which sheaths the penis, and if desired, the sheath and liner may together be disposable, or the liner may be removed from the sheath and disposed of, while the sheath may be reused.
The article not only provides a cosmetic function in that it avoids unsightly stains caused by a posturinary drip, but it provides a hygenic function by avoiding skin contact with that portion of apparel, for example "shorts", "briefs" or other underpants which are wetted with the urine. Because a post-urinary drip can drippingly wet through underpants, the article will also save afflicted males from undue embarassment.
It should be appreciated that the article of this invention is wholly inadequate to cope with an incontinent male, or where nerve injury has occurred, as in certain neurological diseases, or where there is abnormal sphincter weakness. As will presently be evident from a detailed description of the article, it is particularly designed for absorbing a typical post-urinary drip such as is experienced by a mature male who is no longer a young adult. Such a drip, deemed attributable to a slight sphincter weakness or a prostate problem in the mature male, may range in volume from a few drops which together are about 0.1 ml, to a relatively large number of drops which together add up to about 10 ml, at some usually unpredictable time after a single normal urination.
As will also presently be evident, the article of this invention is not a condom or contraceptive, simply because its sheath is specifically designed as a relatively inextensible, non-resilient loose-fitting covering for the penis in its normal or "rest" position, that is, when there is no either partial or full erection such as is present during coitus, and it would not confine semen because the sheath has a slot in it. By non-resilient I mean that the sheath lacks the ability of a strained body, by virtue of its (the body's) high yield strength and low elastic modulus, to recover its size and form following deformation.
Though it is evident that any device for absorbing post-urinary drip must be worn externally, that is, next to the skin and exteriorly of the body, the problem is how to do so effectively. A solution was preferred more than a century ago in the United States of America in U.S. Pat. No. 87,932 to E. F. Hoffmann, and in Great Britain more than fifty years ago in GB Pat. Nos. 8,641 and 264,690, but these devices were uncomfortable and inconvenient to wear and lacked a highly absorbent material for use as a u-a pad.
A non-elastomeric and non-resilient sheath was disclosed as early as in the U.S. Pat. No. 87,932, but they chose to use a belt (for around the waist) and a testicle-supporting sack to support the sheath. Such belt-supported devices, however, are uncomfortable, and therefore still a problem. This problem of comfortably positioning a penis sheath to combat post-urinary drip has persisted for over a century. The formidable nature of the problem will better be appreciated when one duly notes that U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,958,574 and 4,064,888 elected simply to avoid the problem. By non-elastomeric I refer to the sheath's inability to be stretched under low stress at room temperature, to at least twice its original length, and upon immediate release of the stress, to return with force to its approximate original length.